August 01, 2002

Why people develop open source software.

Ever wonder why people develop open source software? I know why I do, and it turns out there are several other categories of people as well. The Boston Consulting Group recently completed a survey of open source developers to see why they do it. Be sure to check out the large PDF file there with all the details. Here are a few highlights:
Overall Hacker Motivations:

Intellectually stimulating (44.9%)

Improves skill (41.3%)

Work functionality (33.8%)

Code should be open (33.1%)

Other interesting tidbits:

70% of OSS developers are volunteers.

Lack of sleep considered biggest cost of participation.

48.3% of developers stated that "When we prepare a program, it's just like composing poetry or music."